Cigarette and ash separator



Aug. 23, 1955 A. D. ALLMAN CIGARETTE AND ASH SEPARATOR Filed July 28,1952 FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 2.

INVENTOR. ARVEL D. ALLMAN WM ATTORNEY United States Patent CIGARETTE ANDASH SEPARATOR Arvel D. Allman, Kansas City, Mo.

Application July 28, 1952, Serial No. 301,339

1 Claim. (Cl. 220-205) This invention relates to an improvement in acigarette and ash separator and more particularly to the structuralconvenience thereof.

Heretofore other ash trays have been made with separate compartments forthe cigarettes and ashes but it is usually necessary to remove a stopperor cover on those designs to manually place the cigarettes in thereceptacle. When it is necessary to empty them a cover must usually beentirely removed and in some designs the cigarettes often choke theopening of the cigarette receptacle requiring a certain amount ofprobing action to extract the cigarettes.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved cigaretteand ash separator that the users thereof will normally separate theashes from the cigarettes and the cigarettes may be automaticallyaligned and dropped into the cigarette hopper by the opening of a gatehinged above the cigarette receptacle and provided with a manual lift ortilting member for opening the gate. A grate is provided over the ashreceptacle and is rigidly attached to the gate whereby it is lifted oropened with the gate.

Plural grates and ash receptacles are also employed. The grates areprovided with openings smaller than the diameter of the cigarettes andthe average smoker will normally scrape off the ashes on one of thegrates allowing ashes to fall into the ash receptacle and if he has acigarette butt which he desires to dispose of he places it on one of thegrates and normally walks away. Where there is a crowd of smokerssmoking, usually several cigarette butts are placed on the grate orgrates and but few smokers will take the time to place the cigarettes inthe hopper. However, one of the smokers or a caretaker may convenientlylift the gates with the grates on the hinges thereof and the cigaretteswill automatically roll and fall into the elongated cigarette hopper ina parallel relation to each other.

This improved cigarette receptacle has inverted spaced hopper sides withthe top edges thereof forming an opening parallel with the longitudinalaxis of the cigarettes, the cigarettes falling through the hopperopening whereby when the receptacle is inverted the cigarettes willautomatically expel themselves by gravity. The ashes will also fall outof the ash receptacle or receptacles by gravity when the cigarette andash separator is inverted.

With these objects in view the invention may be more fully understoodfrom the accompanying drawing, the specification and the scope of theclaim appended.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a plan view of the cigarette and ash separator with fourconventional cigarette rests illustrated thereon.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the cigarette and ash separator asillustrated in Figure 1 with the top including the divided gate andgrates removed.

Figure 3 is an elevation of Figure l with certain parts broken away toillustrate the interior structure thereof 2,715,973 Patented Aug. 23,1955 ice and the four conventional cigarette rests being omitted becauseof old construction.

Figure 4 is an inverted view of Figure 3 with the divided gate andgrates automaticaily opened by gravity to permit the cigarettes showndotted to fall therebetween and the ashes to also fall from the ashreceptacles.

An elongated longitudinal cigarette receptacle 5 is separated from theash receptacles 6 by partitions 7 extending between the receptacles andhaving the bottoms 8 of the partitions spaced further apart than the topedges thereof forming opening 9 at the top of the cigarette receptacle.Hinges 19 preferably made of wire and having an inverted U shape havethe ends 11 attached to the ends of the receptacle 5.

Divided plates or elongated closure gates 12 are spaced over the opening9 of the cigarette receptacle and have grates 13 rigidly attachedthereto. The grates are preferably shaped to segments of a circle andcover the top of the ash receptacles 6.

Preferably semi-annular rings 14 are provided with top flanges 15 andbottom flanges 16, the plates or gates 12 and grates 13 are attached tothe lower flanges 16. The flanges 15 are projected outward to rest onthe outer walls of the receptacles 5 and 6.

The flanges 15 have holes 17 therein for the reception of the hingewires 10, the flanges 15 being spaced suificiently above lower flanges16 by the semi-annular rings 14 to form a shallow tray and provide theproper spacing for the opening 9 of the cigarette receptacle 5 when thegates are opened. The opening of the gates with the grates isaccomplished by the flanges 15 moving toward the center of the hingewires 10 thus opening the divided gate 12 with rigid grates 13.

In the operation the cigarette and ash separator is placed on aconvenient table or stand. When a smoker desires to extract the ashesfrom his cigarette he scrapes the lighted or ash portion over thegrating 13 causing the ashes to fall within one of the ash receptacles6. The divided gates 12 are preferably made of solid plate to preventany burning ashes from falling into the cigarette receptacle 5.

If a group of smokers use the separator the ash receptacles will becomepartially filled and cigarette and butts will be thrown on top of thegrates 13 and gates 12 and be confined by the semi-annular rings 14. Theordinary smoker or a caretaker may lift the two lift members 18 whichare attached to the semi-annular flanges 15 with the result that thecigarettes and butts will become longitudinally aligned with the gates12 and pass through the opening 9 into the cigarette receptacle 5. Thecigarettes and butts shown in dotted lines at 19 may be of variouslengths and have their longitudinal axis aligned with the divided gate12 by the raising of the gates and grates. When it is desired to emptythe receptacles it is only necessary to invert them allowing the grates13 with divided gates 12 to fall downward and open by gravity on wirehinges 16. The cigarettes being in parallel alignment with the opening 9will roll off the plates 7 and between the divided gates 12, grates 13and flanges 15, the flanges 15 being held apart by an oifset 20 in thewire hinges 10. The ashes 21 will fall from the ash receptacles 6 andwith a little horizontal vibration of the separator the receptacles willbecome reasonably emptied for return to use on a table or stand.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A cigarette and ash separator comprising a receptacle for cigarettes,said receptacle being horizontal and elongated with the top thereofbeing open so as to receive horizontal cigarettes, said receptacle forcigarettes having end walls, side walls and a bottom, a pair of ashreceptacles, said ash receptacles being on opposite sides of said 3 r Ireceptacle for cigarettes and continuous therefrom with the openingsthereof being upward at least to the same plane of the opening of thereceptacle for cigarettes, a

rigidly connected with said grates above thelongitudina'l side walls ofsaid receptacle for cigarettes, a pair of Uv' V shaped wires, oneU-sh'aped wire being inverted and .at-'

t aehed to an upward projection of each end wall of said receptacle forcigarettes, a plate extended upward from each end of each gate andextended around the outer periphery of the attached grate to form aflange, said plates having the upper ends thereof bent over horizontallywith .holes therein to engage the inverted U-shaped wires so as to hingethe gates on the inverted U-s haped 7 wires to separate them along thecenter lines of the in} verted U-shaped wires and the longitudinalcenter line of the opening of the receptacle for cigarettes whereby thegrates may be manually'lifted to admit cigarettes into the receptaclefor cigarettes, or fall by gravity to suspend them from the U-shapedwires in a dependent position when the receptacles are emptied byinversion.

References Cited inlthezti ile of this patent UN TED X E PAT NT 895,420Bristol Aug. 11, 1908 1,020,004 Wishman Mar. 12, 1912 1,706,244 iMeyerson Q .2 'Mar. 19, 1929 1,745,761 I-Iiering Feb. 4, 1930 1,840,664Gerstheirner Jan. 12, 1932 2,235,568 Soens Mar. 18, 1941 2,307,645 SmithJan. 5, 1943 2,563,750 Rosenbaum Aug. 7, 71951 e FOREIGN PATENTS 7 GreatBritain May 23, 1946

